Manually Acquiring Targets From Multiple Viewpoints Using Video Feedback

Objective The effect of camera viewpoint was studied when performing visually obstructed psychomotor targeting tasks. Background Previous research in laparoscopy and robotic teleoperation found that complex perceptual-motor adaptations associated with misaligned viewpoints corresponded to degraded performance in manipulation. Because optimal camera positioning is often unavailable in restricted environments, alternative viewpoints that might mitigate performance effects are not obvious. Methods A virtual keyboard-controlled targeting task was remotely distributed to workers of Amazon Mechanical Turk. The experiment was performed by 192 subjects for a static viewpoint with independent parameters of target direction, Fitts' law index of difficulty, viewpoint azimuthal angle (AA), and viewpoint polar angle (PA). A dynamic viewpoint experiment was also performed by 112 subjects in which the viewpoint AA changed after every trial. Results AA and target direction had significant effects on performance for the static viewpoint experiment. Movement time and travel distance increased while AA increased until there was a discrete improvement in performance for 180 degrees. Increasing AA from 225 degrees to 315 degrees linearly decreased movement time and distance. There were significant main effects of current AA and magnitude of transition for the dynamic viewpoint experiment. Orthogonal direction and no-change viewpoint transitions least affected performance. Conclusions Viewpoint selection should aim to minimize associated rotations within the manipulation plane when performing targeting tasks whether implementing a static or dynamic viewing solution. Because PA rotations had negligible performance effects, PA adjustments may extend the space of viable viewpoints. Applications These results can inform viewpoint selection for visual feedback during psychomotor tasks.